By Blessing David
The Nigerian government today recieved over three million two thousand four hundred (3,002,400) doses of Johnson and Johnson J&J vaccines from the government of Italy at the headquarters of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency NPHCDA in Abuja.
Speaking at the event , Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo representative of the Director General of the World Health Organization WHO, said the Italian government has been at the forefront of COVID-19 response through funding and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility.
WHO said this donation marks another remarkable example of global solidarity in action to end the Covid 19 pandemic, as such, thanked the Italian Government for contribution just as vaccination remains the best defence against the pandemic.
While commending the Italian government for the donation, he said the Johnson and Johnson vaccines has come at the right time after the re-launching of the optimized SCALES strategy on the 22nd February 2022 with theme “One shot COVID-19 Vaccine for Everyone”.
He maintained that the SCALES 2.0 aimed at providing an opportunity for the single dose COVID-19 vaccine to be rolled out in the states.Just as the donated vaccines will go a long way in boosting the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination in the country.
The WHO representative explained that, available data shows that the introduction of the single dose vaccine has provided the opportunity for more eligible persons to become fully vaccinated, In addition, the FGoN through NPHCDA and partners are supporting the states on deployment and validation of integrated micro plans.
Commitment
He said WHO and partners will continue to lead and manage the COVAX pillar of ACT-Accelerator, providing end-to-end integrated support for the global vaccination targets, adding that out of the COVID-19 doses that have so far been received in the country, over 96% have been received through the COVAX facility.
He further seized the ocassion therefore, to reiterate that WHO and partners will continue to provide support to the government in country delivery of vaccination programmes.